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Are there still x86-like 32-bit only processor sold in 2013 by a mainstream brand ? (AMD / Intel..).

I'm not sure but what does that have to do with a story about x32? (x32 requires a 64-bit CPU you know... all it does is shorten the pointer length and reduce the memory space to 32 bits to conserve memory while still allowing 64-bit math, using new instructions that aren't in 32-bit x86, using the new addressing modes in x86-64, and using all of the general purpose registers on a 64-bit x86 CPU).

I'm not sure but what does that have to do with a story about x32? (x32 requires a 64-bit CPU you know... all it does is shorten the pointer length and reduce the memory space to 32 bits to conserve memory while still allowing 64-bit math, using new instructions that aren't in 32-bit x86, using the new addressing modes in x86-64, and using all of the general purpose registers on a 64-bit x86 CPU).

Eek, didn't know this, sorry ! Generally I used to say x32 for 32-bit only processor like pre-amd64 era. Didn't know it was a Linux project.

Frankly I don't really see x32 really taking off... 64bit is already really engrained in people's minds and with the way RAM keeps jumping up I don't see the benefits of maintaining 3 separate architectures, despite normal 64bit being a little more expensive.

This isn't quite right, x86_64 is real 64-bit, x32 is 32-bit with 64-bit extensions. Full 64-bit registers are available, but the default types of (I)nt, (L)ong, and (P)ointers are 32-bit, that's why it's also known as ILP32. Longer types, such as long long or explicit 64-bit types are natively supported.

Frankly I don't really see x32 really taking off... 64bit is already really engrained in people's minds and with the way RAM keeps jumping up I don't see the benefits of maintaining 3 separate architectures, despite normal 64bit being a little more expensive.

There are definitely use cases where 64-bit is a big win, but that isn't so much dependent on the amount of installed RAM as the type of application, and even discarding the 5-40% potential performance advantage you need a lot more than 4GiB RAM to lose any advantage from the reduced memory consumption, especially given each process gets its own 4GiB address space.

One more thing, on x86-64 Gentoo you can now install with a default system ABI: x86-64, x86, or x32. When you want a specific application to use a different ABI you just need to use an abi_x86_* use-flag and the dependencies required are pulled in. Other distributions also allow you to install dependencies for specific ABIs as required, although of course, not dynamically, package by package.

s_j_newbury the big Problem is that you has to hold the x32 librarys and x86-64 librarys. So on a "normal" 64bit System you has 3 types present.

Potentially. However, you're never likely to need each ABI version of every library, and if your main ABI is x32 the libraries are much smaller anyway, so having a number of alternative ABI versions of specific libraries won't make a huge difference to disk space; and how big a problem is disk space nowadays? If RAM is cheap, storage is cheaper. Remember, most libraries are only 10s to 100s of KBs.

There is a long rat tail for each ABI and not everyone has a broadband connection. if an component get an patch you download it 3 times.

You've got me there. If you don't have enough bandwidth to download updates you'd probably be better on a LTS distribution, make sure you only get security fixes to minimize updates, and order a DVD when updating to a new release... (half serious)